Rationale:
Summarization is a very important part of reading and comprehending text. Good
readers are able to find key points and main ideas in order to summarize a
story. Through the use of these techniques and through reading connected text,
this lesson will give children practice in this important skill.

Materials:

Pencils

Paper

Highlighters

Copy of Bottlenose Dolphins for each child

Copy of Crabs Clean Up for each child

Copy of Giant Jellyfish Invasion for each child

Black magic marker for each child

Dry erase marker/board

Checklist

Procedure:

1. Explain the purpose of the lesson to
the students. Say: "Today we are going to learn how to summarize! Who knows what
summarize means? That's correct! After we read a story or a passage, we can
summarize it. We do this by picking out the main ideas and the most important
parts and putting it into our own words. When you summarize, you are simply
retelling the story, keeping the main ideas in your summary, and throwing out
the minor ideas. We only keep the most important ideas of the passage in our
summary."

2.In order to model the
strategy of summarization for the children, pull up the smart board or overhead
projector, with a prepared document to demonstrate summarization to the
children. Say: "All right boys and girls, first I am going to demonstrate how to
summarize a passage. This passage is called,Crabs
Clean Up."

3.
Before introducing a passage to read, it is important to review vocabulary
words. Say, "Before reading this passage, we are going to learn some vocabulary
words that you might not know the meaning of. Some of you might have heard of
these words, but that's okay. We are going to talk about them again! (Teacher
will write words on the board). The first word isspecies.Let's
look at what that word means. Aspeciesis
a group of organisms, or a type of organism. Aspeciesis
a specific organism, such as a Polar Bear. A species is specific to the animal
or organism. For instance, an example of a species isn't just a bear; it's a
Polar Bear. In the passage we are about to read, species refers to all the
different kinds and groups of crabs. Another word you may be unfamiliar with is
the wordsediment.What
doessedimentmean?
Sediment means tiny particles, or bits of dirt. Great!
Let's get started!

4.
Pass out a copy ofCrabs
Clean Upto
the students. Say, "I want you to read along with me as I read. Listen carefully
to the entire story, because I am going to show you how to summarize after we
are done reading". (Teacher reads passage with the children, using the overhead
projector). The teacher will then model how to pick out important information
and unimportant information. Say, "What subject seems to be mentioned more than
once? That's the topic. That is important because that is what it's about! Let's
highlight frequent words in red. What could be the topic? That's correct! It's
about crabs because it is mentioned the most! What is the author saying about
the topic? Let's look at the action words first and highlight those in green,
What words did we highlight? We highlighted that crabstake
careof
a huge job, that theykeepcoral
reefs alive, and that coral reefsdependon
crabs to survive.

Researchers have discovered that
tiny crabs about
a third of an inch (one centimeter) long take
care of
a huge job. They actually help keep coral
reefs alive. And that's important, because more than nine million species depend on
coral reefs around the world for food and shelter. These tiny crabs,
called trapeziid crabs, accomplish a
lot despite their size.

5.
Now, I'm going to use my marker to cross out unneeded details. I'm going to
cross out the part of the sentence that states that the crabs areabout
a third of an inch.That
detail is not important; it's a minor detail of the story. Details are
descriptions that help you see what the text means, but examples are not
important. Delete the examples. We
don't need that minor details for our summary to make sense. To create a
summary, we put all the important details together in our own words. So, my
summary will be: Though crabs are very small, they help keep coral reefs alive
through a variety of ways. Everyone understand? Any questions? Great!

6.
In order to provide guided practice summarizing to the children, I will provide
a short excerpt for the children to summarize. Go over unknown vocabulary words
with the students. Say, "Now it is your turn to practice! I want each of
you to highlight main ideas, cross out unnecessary ideas, and come up with a
sentence summary of this passage".

Their moans, groans, squeaks, whistles, and grunts can sound as if they're a
heavy metal band. But bottlenosedolphinsmake
their own kind of music. Many of the sounds they make could be imitated by
holding a balloon tightly by the neck, then letting the air out faster and
slower. Bottlenosedolphinssendmessages
to one another in different ways. Theysqueakandwhistleandusebody
language--leapingas
high as 20 feet (6 meters) in the air,snappingtheir
jaws,slappingtheir
tails on the surface of the water, and evenbuttingheads.

7.
Say, " Let's look at what we should cross out and highlight. Let's start with
the topic. What
do you think? What's it about? What is used most frequently in the text? Great!
I see the word dolphin a lot, and these dolphins seem to be sending messages.
What's our topic? Yes, our topic is Dolphin Communication! Next,
we are looking for the point! What action verbs do you see? We found out that
dolphins squeak, move, and use sound to communicate! Next, we need to mark out
trivial info we don't need! Remember that we don't really need examples or
repeating info. What can we cross out? Do we need to know an example of what
their communication sounds like, such as the balloon? Great job! We don't need
it for our summary to make sense. After reading, crossing out, and highlighting,
what could be your summary? Great job! You are right! A great example of a
summary could be "Dolphins speak to each other with sounds and body language"

8. Say, "What have you learned so far
about summarization? How is it important? Those are great answers. Today, you
are going to summarize a passage of your own! You are going to summarize an
exciting article about a jellyfish invasion called, "Giant Jellyfish Invasion".
( pass out article to students). This
is an exciting article about huge jellyfish invading! You'll have to read to
find out what they are invading.

9.
Say, "Before we read, let's go over some vocabulary words you may not know in
this passage". Teacher will go over vocabulary words that her specific classroom
probably isn't familiar with. These include: plankton, poison, catastrophe.

10.
Say, after you finish reading the passage, you are going to summarize it on your
own. I am going to give you time to read this passage to yourself, and then I
want you to write the best summary you can! Remember to use your highlighter and
marker as you read to help you out! Use the highlighter to highlight main ideas,
and use your marker to cross out unnecessary ideas. When you get ready to write
your summary, keep it in 2 sentences or less. Remember to only use important
information! Stick to what the article is mainly talking about. After you have
completed summarizing your passage, I will collect your papers".

11.
The teacher will use a checklist to make sure that students have understood the
concept of summarizing.

Did the student?

Yes

No

Comprehend the information from
the passage?

Delete unnecessary information
from the passage?

Highlight important information
from the passage?

Write at least one sentence that
includes all the important
information in the passage?